Team New Zealand Beat Luna Rossa

After a one day delay due to light winds, the America’s Cup
Match between Team New Zealand and Prada’s Luna Rossa
started in front of over 1600 spectator boats on the Hauraki
Gulf. The forecast was for light winds again, but by race
time, an 8-12 knot Southerly had filled in across the race
course, and Race Committee Chairman Harold Bennett started
the race on time at 13:15.

Team New Zealand Beat Luna
Rossa – Delta 01:17

The 30th America’s Cup started in
8-10 knots of Southerly wind. Team New Zealand (NZL-60) and
Luna Rossa (ITA-45) finally lined up in a highly anticipated
race. The pre-start was fairly active, with Kiwi skipper
Russell Coutts forcing a first and then a second dial-up,
holding his counterpart Francesco de Angelis, on Luna Rossa,
head to wind near the starting line, never giving up the
right hand side. But with 30 seconds to go before the start,
de Angelis was able to force Coutts to tack away. He soon
tacked back, and both boats started on starboard tack, with
Luna Rossa having to pinch up to clear the starting
pin.

With Team New Zealand in a strong position slightly
to windward, the boats raced out towards the left side of
the course. But Luna Rossa showed good height, and was able
to creep up close to leeward of the black boat, so Coutts
tacked away. De Angelis followed him, Luna Rossa now in the
windward position. As the wind shifted left, the Italians
slowly lifted to a position of advantage. When Coutts tacked
and the boats converged, Luna Rossa was able to tack
directly in front of the Defender. Team New Zealand was
forced back to the right. But Coutts kept tacking back at
the Challenger, and the boats would separate and then
converge. On each split, Team New Zealand was able to make
small gains. After the fourth tack, Coutts held the lead and
the Italians couldn’t get back to a leebow position, tacking
a boatlength to leeward and abeam of the black boat. Team
New Zealand leveraged that small advantage by sitting to
windward of Luna Rossa, pushing the Italians to the left
layline. Twice, de Angelis attempted dummy tacks by luffing
into the wind before falling back on his course. But Coutts
wasn’t fooled. By the time the boats reached the top mark,
the black boat was 22 seconds ahead.

At the windward
mark, Team New Zealand did a bear-away set with its
asymmetrical spinnaker. Luna Rossa looked sure to follow as
de Angelis set his spinnaker pole on the port side for a
bear-away set, but the Italians executed a gybe set, a dummy
that is possible with asymmetrical spinnakers. The gybe set
allowed Luna Rossa to gain separation early on the downwind
leg, but the Italians had to sacrifice some distance to get
it. Coutts gybed shortly after Luna Rossa rounded the mark,
and held position to leeward of the Italians. When de
Angelis gybed, Team New Zealand gybed directly in front of
the silver boat to protect its position, six boat lengths
ahead. The black boat displayed good pace downwind, and
Coutts held a 36-second lead after the first lap of the
course.

On the second beat, Team New Zealand used its
lead to pick windshifts and stretch even further. Luna Rossa
tacked around the leeward mark and Coutts tacked to cover as
both boats pushed out to the right. De Angelis and his
tactician, Torben Grael made a few attempts to tack out of
coverage, but Coutts held firm, and slowly exerted a push to
the layline on the Italians. Both boats overstood the
starboard tack layline to the mark and Team New Zealand led
a long parade into the mark, rounding 1:03 ahead.

On the
second run, Luna Rossa found an opportunity to close the gap
a little bit. Both boats pressed out to the right side of
the course, and the Italians gybed first near the layline.
Coutts gybed at the same time, but because he was positioned
to weather he found himself in less wind pressure. De
Angelis was able to sail deeper and halve the lead before
Team New Zealand found similar wind again. Grael called for
another gybe and Luna Rossa crossed behind the black boat
before Coutts gybed to cover. Both boats extended across the
layline for the mark and Team New Zealand held a much
smaller 25-second lead when the boats eventually rounded the
bottom mark.

The final beat was a great leg for Team New
Zealand. Coutts’ position of coverage gave him the inside on
a long, slow left-hand shift as the boats raced out to the
right. De Angelis tried a couple of times to escape, but
Team New Zealand covered tightly and the Italians were again
pushed out to the starboard tack layline early in the leg.
The long starboard tack up to the mark also worked in the
black boat’s favour as Team New Zealand exploited better
pressure to again point a little higher. Coutts gained
41-seconds to take a stranglehold on the race.

The last
run to the finish saw Team New Zealand stay between Luna
Rossa and the finish line. Coutts and his tactician Brad
Butterworth never let the Italians split very far before
gybing to cover and their big lead was never threatened.
Team New Zealand won the first race of the best of nine
America’s Cup Match.

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